SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Five nuns who died in the custody of Serb extremists during World War II have been beatified at a ceremony that attracted thousands in Bosnia — the last formal step before possible sainthood.

This was on of the ugliest periods ever in the Roman Catholic Church and easily topped the Spanish Inquisition in numbers of victims and sadism, but most people don't even know that it happened. Worst of all, most of the perpetrators escaped the country and got away with it.

Your link is the same old, same old anti-Catholicism. On this, you and I will NEVER agree. I look forward to and pray for the canonization of Blessed Alois Cardinal Stepinac (beatified and declared a martyr by John Paul II, 10/3/98 at Marija Bistrica in Croatia) and I hope fervently that Yugoslav dictator Tito will be given the opportunity to witness the canonization as Tito continues to rot in the soviet section of communist hell (for his crimes as a Stalinist stooge and thug against Greek Orthodox in Macedonia and Northern Greece as well as against Catholics and other freedom lovers).

You are no more an objective observer than was Tito. I certainly hope that the leadership of my Church will NEVER sink to a level of apologizing for either Pope Pius XII (one of your photos links him subtly to the usual communist libels that originated with Rolf Hochhuth).

I also look forward to the day when the Venerable Emperor Karl I and the Venerable Empress Zita, Pius XII, Pius IX, and Queen Isabella of Spain are also canonized.

The Spanish Inquisition???? Lions and tigers and bears, Oh my!

Another pro-Serbian website for the promotion of anti-Catholic bigotry (spirituallysmart.com) claims that the Jesuit order actually appointed Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and others to run their respective countries. Although I graduated a Jesuit prep school, I had never imagined the Jebbies being quite that powerful. Of course, this myth of the Jesuits almighty is said to have occurred under the genuinely and fervently Catholic Jesuit Superior General (aka the black pope) Wlodimar Ledochowski who died in 1942 and whose Catholicism is sorely missed among today's spineless liberals dominating the Jesuit order (starting with his successor Jean Baptiste Janssens, and his successor Pedro Arupe, and his elected successor Hans Pieter Kolvenbach and whatever nonentity has succeeded him. The same website actually accuses Ron Paul's bosom buddy Alex Jones (Infowars) of covering for the crimes of the Jebbies by never mentioning them and their "appointments" of various fascist and Nazi dictators. Is Ron Paul a secret stooge of fascist Jesuits??? Stay tuned to "spirituallysmart.com."

I must have missed your defense of Gavrilo Princip and of Tito and of Stalin.

Finally, Wikipedia is not a notably Catholic site, nor a notably Eastern Orthodox site. Whatever its strengths and/or weaknesses, it seems to take neither side reflexively between the religious views of the Vatican and of Sarajevo. It tells a verrrry different story about the martyred Alois Cardinal Stepinac than do you or your pet websites. It also cites the American Jewish Committee's reaction to the conviction of Stepinac by Tito's Kangaroo Court to the effect that the "trial" had a predetermined outcome and was concocted for the purpose of giving cover to anti-Catholic persecution by Tito in Yugoslavia. The American Jewish Committee's only horse in that race was service to objective truth. Also note the testimony of Croatian Jews as to Blessed Stepinac's heroism in assisting the escape of Jews from the Nazis through Turkey and to and through the Spain of Francisco Franco (another major hero of the era except to the reds). May they all, other than Tito and his stooges, be blessed.

Pius XII reacted to the communist show trial of Blessed Alois Cardinal Stepinac by Tito's gauleiters and satraps by summarily excommunicating each and every "Catholic" who participated in the show trial against him.

As to the ever-growing but quite discredited campaign of libel (largely invented by communists wherever) against World War II Roman Catholic leadership, and their allies in the Balkans, the libelmeisters should grow up, get over their poisonous millenium old resentments and put their vicious lies where the sun shineth not.

The original article is no longer available from the WaPo. In the wars we have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the enemy also claims that it has no soldiers. They simply organize civilians to kill our troops mostly as suicide bombers or by planting IEDs. Our soldiers die one way or the other. If the Islamofascisti wish to kill our soldiers or our civilians, it does not really matter. The proper response is to slaughter them.

Nuns in the WW II era would seem likely non-combatantsas victims. Those 95% of the "Serb Partisans" whom you claim were not communist were apparently led by communists). I don't care what their personal opinions were, I care who they worked for. I have no idea who the "chatniks" are or were in the context of WWII in the Balkans. Nor apparently does the internet since the term is only referenced as one dealing with those who like to chat on the internet.

If the "Serb Partisans" who did the work of the reds helped to usher in the tyranny of Tito, then they deserved to die before they could accomplish such a goal. If they were Serbian enemies of freedom, they were also Serbian enemies of Serbian freedom. and this questionable term: "anti-fascist guerilla forces sounds like TitoSpeak in Tito's days as a Stalinist footstool.

It looks like there is an overdose of "Serbian nationalism" that refuses to recognize the communist roots of much of the leadership of Serbia post-WW II until Slobbo was taken out. If that communism does not bother you, that is on you. Stepinac was a saint and will ultimately canonized. He was no nazi (whatever Tito's agitprop would have us believe) and certainly no communist as were the Serbian leaders.

At this late date, we have no idea whether the WaPo article referenced soldiers or not. Fortunately, it makes no difference. A communist stooge is a communist stooge is a communist stooge.

I am partially Irish and I identify with that part of my ancestry. I do NOT defend either the Maoist or the Stalinist wing of the Irish Republican Army of modern times. A communist thug or stooge is a communist thug or stooge is a communist thug or stooge. Same principle, different country. Right now, I am rather ripped at the Irish liberal dummies who run its government. Just because I am Irish does not mean that I will shut my eyes to evils perpetrated by Irish. May that serve as an example for you on matters Serbian. As my mother used to say, there is good and bad in all kinds.

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